Animal Welfare Assurance Programs

Animal Welfare Assurance Organizations Animal welfare: Assurance organizations Organization 1: Manes and Tails Mission (Hoboken, NJ) Manes and Tails Mission, located in Hoboken, NJ is a locally-based organization that oversees a variety of efforts to reduce cruelty against horses. Given the faltering economy, many horses have been abandoned and/or abused, as fewer and fewer people have the ability to care for their animals properly. Horses from the racetrack or who have been used in vocations like the Mounted Police often have difficulties finding good homes after they retire.

This organization resolves to "rescue, rehabilitate, retrain, and re-home the most commonly slaughtered breeds of horses - Quarter horses, Thoroughbreds, and Standardbreds." (Mission statement, 2011, Manes and Tails.). It does not sell horses, although it does lease them. It also provides retirement homes for Mounted Police horses. It educates the public about equine slaughter. It also provides community service through reduced rate boarding, maintenance of rare breeds, and promotes holistic horse care education.

The program is fairly balanced in terms of how it promotes preserving horses physically and mentally, and also attempts to keep horses in as natural a state as possible, regardless of where they are housed (including promoting keeping horses shoeless whenever possible). Providing educational and supportive resources to the community rather than outcomes are emphasized -- the organization is small and its goals are varied, so it does not keep metrics on monitoring how much of a positive or negative effect it has had upon the equine community.

The organization disseminates information to all horse owners about improving the care of their animals and tries to help horses on a case-by-case basis. It acknowledges in its mission statement that it is a local organization with limited resources and strives to create liaisons with other community organizations and national organizations devoted to horse rescue and care.

Organization 2: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) In contrast to the small, localized horse rescue Manes and Tails, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a national organization. Like Manes and Tails, the ASPCA is devoted to preventing animal cruelty and to educating the public about how to better take care of their animals. The ASPCA is devoted to helping livestock, pet and companion animals, and also wild animals live a life free of cruelty.

"The ASPCA's policies are grounded in the belief that animals inherently deserve of our respect, compassion and consideration of their needs" and its mission is broad and not focused on one specific animal (ASPCA Position statement 1.3). The ASPCA has specific policy guidelines on a variety of issues pertaining to many types of animal populations. Regarding pets, it strongly supports spay and neuter programs and specifically defines what is entailed by humane pet-keeping (versus 'puppy farming,' hoarding, etcetera). The ASPCA views euthanasia as only a last resort.

Regarding livestock, "the ASPCA firmly believes that animals who are bred, raised and killed or harvested for human consumption, like all animals, are entitled to protection from distress and suffering during their lives and at the time of their deaths" (ASPCA Position statement 3.1). Likewise, the ASPCA takes a moderate position on animal testing, arguing that it should only be deployed when alternatives do not exist (ASPCA Position statement 4.3).

The ASPCA guidelines are balanced in terms of addressing the physical health of animals (animal cruelty, humane treatment, humane conditions for all animals, including those used for food and in medical research) and also minimizing the negative psychological effects of cruelty, as can occur when animals are housed in cramped quarters, with insufficient attention, or who are subjected to stress and unnatural conditions as in the case of 'puppy mills' and animals used in work and in entertainment.

The ASPCA does not oppose the use of animals in entertainment, "provided that all of the animals' physiological and behavioral needs are fully met and that no cruel practices are used in raising, training and maintaining the animals, including when their period of useful service is over' (ASPCA Position statement 5.16). The ASPCA also stresses the need for consideration of the environment and for nature, keeping with its concerns about the ethical treatment of wild animals.

It does not oppose animal control of wildlife in all instances, but stresses that, like all forms of euthanasia, it should only be practiced as a last resort (ASPCA Position statement 6.1). The ASPCA is not a conservation group such as, for example, Greenpeace, but sees its support of healthy environment for all animals, wild as well as tame, as keeping with its mission of cruelty prevention. The ASPCA is an extremely large not-for-profit organization and releases an annual report detailing its successes.

This is necessary, given the extensive corporate as well as individual sponsorship solicited by the organization, to demonstrate that its funds are being put to good use. Its annual report contains a wide variety of examples of how the ASPCA has exerted its influence to improve conditions for animals, as in the case of NYC's carriage horses, as well as its financial statements. A complete copy of the audit can be obtained by the organization's CFO (Chief Financial Manager) (Annual report, ASPCA, 2010: 56-57).

It is difficult to compare a large organization such as the ASPCA with a national.